Killzone 2 AU Review

Guerrilla Games earns its badge of honour.

Killzone 2 was always designed to be a system seller. It was the title that Sony banked on way back in 2005 during that infamous 'target-render' trailer announcement, providing a tantalising glimpse of what might be, or at very least, what developer Guerrilla Games were aiming for. Years later, in the face of expectations both positive and negative, Killzone 2 has achieved its ambitious visual fidelity and immersive, yet cinematic presentation. But is it a shooter worth your time? That's the US$599 question that a lot of early adopters are probably clawing to get answered.

We'll save you some time, then.

Yes. Definitely, yes. This is as solid a shooter as PlayStation fans and hardcore early-adopters have been hoping for, with scope, features and all-round excellent production values for a game that came from decidedly iffy PS2 roots. It does have a few concessions, but long review short – it's going to make your PS3 sweat as much as your grimy gaming palms and your moon-tan brow. However, it's a bit of a 'conditional-yes' because Killzone 2 stood on the shoulders of giants to get there, taking several transparent cues to market leaders and genre stand-outs to form its gameplay, story, characters, twists and critically, its attitude.

The narrative in Killzone 2 picks up immediately after the events of Killzone: Liberation on PSP – though, no knowledge of either the first Killzone or its PSP sequel is necessary. The Helghast threat, led by Scolar Visari (megalomaniacal and despotic Autarch of the Helghan peoples) has gotten its hands on Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (ISA – they're the good guys) nukes and is out to get the all-important activation codes. ISA Special Forces group 'Alpha Squad', led by Tomas 'Sev' Sevchenko is sent to run interference – essentially to thwart Visari and his military commander Radec's attempts to get the activation codes while simultaneously contributing to the war effort and taking out the Helghan army forces once and for all. Of course, things are never quite that simple in practice.

A stunningly edited opening movie sets the scene: swarms of red-eyed future-Nazis fighting against a thinly veiled American armed forces battalion on the surface of the planet Helghan in a conflict that will eventually take you through environments that range from your typical glowing industrial complexes and energy refineries through to more interesting set-piece levels like a massive locomotive thundering along and across the surface of a dust-bitten and windswept shanty village. It's not a revolution in creative locations or narrative framework, but developer Guerrilla Games manages to capture the feel of a consistent, ongoing epic struggle with one of the most impressive graphical engines on the PS3 or any platform to date.

Such is the extreme level of artistry and clever programming at work in Killzone 2 that there are only two fair comparisons we can make, at least visually: Gears of War 2 and Crysis. Both stand as two of the finest looking games out there and Killzone 2 now confidently snuggles up alongside these. The world of Helghan is rendered magnificently; each of the game's five locations (spread across ten missions) has a distinct colour scheme and physical characteristic. The use of Sony's Deferred Renderer Engine, with its inherent pixel shading techniques, has taken some of the strain off the processor, allowing for some incredible lighting effects and textural detail.

It's no exaggeration that this is one of the best looking games of all time.

Levels are littered with light sources that cast tones of deep blues and reds through to arresting whites that create stark silhouettes as enemies pass in front of them. The air is often littered with debris; little particles catching the wind and blowing through the landscape. Later levels, like the abandoned Sujeva Village, cast the hot afternoon sun on its loose and dusty soil, which sweeps across the land. As Alpha Squad tramples across its surface, clouds of dust are raised and blown into the air. Explosions leave inky black clouds of smoke in their wake, grenades blow panels off walls and take chunks out of pillars and barriers, sending rubble spilling in all directions and sparks flying as machinery is caught in the blast radius. All the while, bullets and grenades zip past as the earth shakes from a nearby explosion and the DualShock 3's rumble pulls you back into reality, just in time to duck for cover as an RPG whizzes past your head, exploding a little too close to you, plastering the edges of the screen with blood, tinting your vision and deafening you momentarily.

Killzone 2 is one of the finest, most visually unified games ever made. Period. It's a rush to just sit back and watch, almost to the point of distraction. It uses colour and lighting to evocative effect, while impressing on a technical level as much as an artistic one. The framerate is locked at 30 frames per second and we never encountered any slowdown. Incredible. While many games can claim to emulate a dystopian far-future in the traditions of something like Gears of War, Killzone 2 really tries hard to nail its own unique visual stamp and it succeeds. It has no permanent HUD – just an ammunition counter in the lower right that fades in when firing your gun and fades out when you're not. There is no radar either, which is bold and laudable. It's refreshing to play a game that really forces you to look before you leap, rather than relying on your radar to tell you the immediate threat.